Then we took it apart and put it in the back of a friends SUV and the guys made a little mistake. . They set the table top down on top of the legs, you know.... that have screws in them.... One little nick turned into several scratches that were pretty noticeable. For the last 2 years I have strategically covered them with place mats and centerpieces, but as all IKEA furniture owners know.. that only works for a little while until water gets under the paint and it starts to bubble up.
So here I am with this large table, perfectly functional but thanks to some ugly scratches it was an eye sore, and unlimited, unchaperoned access to Pinterest. This is a combination that turns out 1 of 2 ways..
GENIUS...or DISASTER!
As most of you know I am a crafty person, I always have been. Even as a little girl I loved to doodle, refinished my doll house furniture (that's why we will soon be investing in a safe, where all paint, glitter, nail polish and permanent markers will be held) I used to go to the shed and steal my dads plaster mix so that I could mix it with water and pore it in molds to make things.. and then paint them. (Sorry Dad! I now know how expensive that stuff is) I was always making things, with ribbon, beads, paper, jars, plastic eggs, anything I could get my hands on. . Pinterest and I are good friends. . . =)
I also have the trust of my husband. As he knows 3 things. .
1. My crafts GENERALLY turn out well
2. I was refinishing this table with or without his approval
3. If he disagreed and hated it the money for a new table was coming out of my house decorating budget.
This is what our table started out as. (without the leaf) and an example of one of the lovely scratches our table possessed.
My plan was Modge Podge. Not having ever used this smelly overpriced glue before I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But like always when my crafts begin to get over my head.. I improvise. . We switched to spray adhesive. . The process was actually going well.
It looked nice, everything was even, cut nicely, loved the pattern. I was proud of myself.We were ready to take it outside so that we could seal it. There were a few issues though. . . It was about 20 degrees colder than the recommendation on the can. . . Eh.. We can spray it outside give it a few minutes and move it in to dry. .. Next Issue. . It was WINDY as CRAP. . Eh. . We can face away from the wind. It will be alright. . . The sealer we chose ATE RIGHT THROUGH THE ADHESIVE.
Well there is a wrinkle I could not work around. So we brought the table in and let it dry off. We tried for the next 2 days to fix it. We tried a rolling pin to roll out all of the bubbles, which worked until the next layer of sealant went on and they were all back. We went back to the modge podge, we super glued, we bought new sealant, we used a hair dryer to make the glue under the paper sticky again, I used an iron to try to make the wrinkles flat. . . Nothing!
Well that is not true I guess. I had a HUGE MESS. a sticky papery, smelly, mess of a table. . But I could not let my table go to waste like that. Even if it was to be used for something other than eating it had a lot of good use in it. . Plan B
Strip it down. Used half a bottle of the best cleaner we have to get all the gunk off and an old license to scrape, and employed the help of the cutest 2 year old I could find to help me sand it. I knew that sander I bought on clearance was a good investment. .
I ended up painting it. I told Ian that it was going to be a solid color, but while he was upstairs I decided to hop back on Pinterest and find a way to distress the paint to add some texture. And again against his advice added some small sips of metallic paint to add even more character. More sanding, more sealing, more perfecting.. but the end result I am pretty happy with.. Long Story short... I highly recommend experimenting on smaller less important pieces of furniture before tackling something you have never done on one of the pieces of furniture you are going to use EVERY DAY. . Its totally cool though. If something happens to it now, I am investing in a LOT of table cloths. .
And for those of you wondering. . . Of Course this is not a distraction from packing and cleaning my house... I mean who wants to tackle face lifting half of the items in their house when they can be PACKING?!?!?
